Mapal cuts costs through energy efficient machining

In one application alone, which involved the manufacture of automotive gearboxes, enhanced tooling from Mapal resulted in energy savings of more than 8,500 kWh per year, equivalent to the emission of 4.9 tonnes of CO2. One of the methods used by Mapal to achieve energy savings is to develop integrated tools that allow the machining in a single operation of several bores, chamfers and flat surfaces. This typically means several tool changes can be eliminated with a resulting reduction in energy used by the machining centre. This was the approach with the gearbox manufacturer, where Mapal developed a combination tool that machines seven different features and replaces the four separate tools that were previously used. With an annual production of 100,000 gearboxes, 388 hours of machine running time were eliminated saving 8,536 kWh of electrical energy. Mapal also delivers energy savings by providing tools that allow the use of higher feed speeds, which lead to shorter machine running times. For example, the MEGA-SpeedDrill and the FeedPlus multi-tooth reamer halve machining times in typical applications. In addition, higher speeds are very energy efficient giving savings of around 15%, according to Mapal, particularly when machining large parts and, when used in conjunction with lightweight tools that have optimised cutting edge geometries. Mapal also uses minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) and dry cutting techniques, which are said to produce energy savings of up to 30%, as these techniques eliminate electrically driven coolant systems.